Europe's clean tech roll out: how to ensure an evidence-based green transition?

Economic policy should be informed by reliable and transparent data. Unfortunately, when it comes to the green transition, which is one of the biggest transformations of our time, Europe continues to have a significant data problem. Clean tech data remains significantly fragmented and difficult to access and it is often only available on a commercial basis. This is problematic: transparent and granular data on clean tech innovation, manufacturing and deployment is essential to guide Europe’s green transition moving forward.

After almost a year of preparations, we are happy to announce the launch of our ‘European clean tech tracker’. With this initiative, we aim to provide a clear, timely and policy-relevant overview of the main innovation, manufacturing and deployment trends characterising the leading technologies which underpin the green transition. 

This first version of the tracker showcases the main manufacturing and deployment trends for solar energy, wind energy, batteries and electric vehicles, hydrogen and heat-pumps. The tracker will be regularly updated as new data becomes available. Over time, the topics covered within the tracker will expand to include trends in innovation and will include new technologies such as grids, nuclear energy, carbon capture, sequestration and more.

The tracker is designed to be regularly updated and stakeholders are encouraged to provide feedback and additional data to improve its coverage and granularity. We hope the tracker will become a critical tool to inform public sector and private sector decision-making processes, as well as the broader public discourse on Europe’s green transition.

Explore the European clean tech tracker by Ben McWilliams, Simone Tagliapietra and Cecilia Trasi here. 

The Why Axis is a weekly newsletter distributed by Bruegel, bringing you the latest research on European economic policy. 

Sign up for the newsletter.